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Chicopee police chief drama becomes grist for the political mill on Bax & O'Brien radio show

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Local radio hosts Mike Baxendale, left, and John O'Brien, collectively known as "Bax & O'Brien," have been critical of Mike Bissonnette, Chicopee's former mayor. On Friday morning's broadcast of the Bax & O'Brien show, the hosts took aim at Bissonnette's appointment of the city's police chief, whose promotion violated civil service guidelines.
(The Republican File)

The Chicopee Police Department, beset with problems ranging from infighting to inappropriate behavior to one officer accidentally shooting another, was grist for the political mill on Friday morning's Bax & O'Brien radio program on Rock 102.

Hosts Mike Baxendale and John O'Brien have been closely following the department's travails, conducting multiple on-air interviews with the city's former mayor, Mike Bissonnette. Many of those discussions have focused on the Police Department's handling of the Amanda Plasse murder case and other black-eye issues for the city.

But on this morning's show, the radio hosts chimed in on Chicopee's latest dustup: The city's "tainted" selection process for choosing a new police chief.

That was the official opinion of the state Civil Service Commission, which this week vacated the June appointment of Police Chief Thomas Charette and turned the hiring process over to Mayor Richard Kos, who defeated Bissonnette in November.

In the meantime, Charette has been demoted to "acting chief" until a permanent replacement is found.

The Civil Service Commission ruling was based on an appeal by William Jebb, a deputy chief who challenged Charette's appointment. Jebb was the top candidate and should have received the chief's job, according to the commission.

"I have concluded that Mayor Bissonnette’s decision to bypass Mr. Jebb was the result of personal and political bias," commission Chairman Christopher C. Bowman said.

Bissonnette "ignored the results of the assessment center and the recommendations of his own interview panel" and chose Charette instead, Bowman said. "He did so based on his mistaken belief that Mr. Jebb played a role, over seven years ago, in divulging information related to his past criminal record during his first run for mayor," the chairman said.

Bissonnette was arrested in 1984 for cocaine possession, and again in 1989 for driving without a valid license.

"The politics seems to have played out in the mayor's office itself," Baxendale said during the show's discussion of the topic.

Bax & O'Brien have been critical of Bissonnette, particularly his handling of the Plasse murder case.